This January, New York explodes with cutting-edge performance fests. Check out the shows here, and get the skinny on downtown arts festivals from its key players

Conventional wisdom holds that January in New York is a frozen wasteland, but we beg to differ. This month, performing-arts festivals of all stripes take over downtown, including the Public Theater’s Under the Radar, the sprawling NYC Winter Jazzfest, and interdisciplinary blowouts like Coil, American Realness and Other Forces. And best of all, they’re easy on the wallet. We got on the horn with the artists behind some of the coolest shows on offer—including the incomparable John Hodgman.